Poll: So, this Christmas nonsense is starting.

[BodomBeachChild]

I used to like Christmas until they started playing Christmas music before Thanksgiving, and putting out trees and decorations before Halloween. Walmart started putting out decorations the 2nd week of October here. Craft stores too. Christmas music has been playin 24/7 on some radio stations here for a month now. Twenty-four seven. No lie.

I don't care about the religious mumbo-jumbo of the holidays. Fuck all that. I'm starting to hate the whole thing now that it's pretty much been made 100% into a money grabbin' machine.

 

[D Moness]

I really love x-mas (well i love winter and snow).
It is just the feeling I get around that time that is just great.
Also in my country because we have another holiday that is december the 5th, the christmas feeling doesn't really start until december 6th(although some people already have a tree decorated).

Although i can not really complain about that still have a stuffed reindeer and a mechanical singing x-mas tree in my bedroom(more or less couldn't be bothered to put them away when last christmas was over).

 

[Colour Scientist]

I fucking love Christmas.

Everything's a bit shinier for a couple of months. People complaining about it is so boring.


Commercialism, man.

 

[doggy go 7]

skip to around 2 mins in for the actual song, the rest isn't really necessary

This really sums up my whole thinking about Christmas, and also it's one of the most beautiful songs I've ever heard, and I think everyone should get the song from the "ready for this album", as it's the best of many great versions.

I love Christmas, and this Christmas is the first time I'll see my Australian family, and especially my grandmother, for two years, so yeah, I'm looking forward to it.

 

[kasperbbs]

Only thing i like about winter holidays is meeting some relatives who live in England, other than that nothing, well i do get 3 days off from work before christmas and if i get to work on those then i'll make twice as much money so that would be nice.

 

[Mortons4ck]

Heading down to the scrap yard this week to find a Festivus Pole!

 

[Ljs1121]

I love Christmas music, eggnog, and being with the family, so I have no complaints.

 

[Aris Khandr]

Walmart started putting out decorations the 2nd week of October here. Craft stores too.

Craft stores actually start in August, September at the latest. Remember, the goal of a craft store is that you make things yourself. Imagine how long it would take to knit a sweater. Sure, you can do it in a day (and I have seen people buy yarn from me one day, and come back to show off their sweater the next), but most people work on things a little bit at a time. So if you want to knit sweaters for your three nieces, you're going to want to start early. I don't work at a craft store anymore, but we actually had people asking when Christmas fabrics were coming in around June, because they want to get started on their projects. So you really can't fault the craft stores for starting early.

 

[Drake Barrow]

I used to like the season a bit more, but time has slowly eroded my enjoyment of the holiday. Too many people that were close to me have drifted away, or been carried off by the vagarities of fate (either to other locales or other states of existence, if you believe in such). That's the most important part of the holiday, indeed, all holidays. People matter, relationships matter, family and friends and good times matter. The rest of it is window dressing.

 

[Alcamonic]

Only reason I don't go Grinch on it all is because they start selling mulled wine.

Finally talked some sense into my family about abandoning gifts for us adults, less stress and crappy gifts for everyone. Win-win!

 

[Z of the Na'vi]

Glad to see that Christmas is "nonsense" to you.

I love the Christmas season, don't know why anybody wouldn't. It's cold outside, you get to spend time with family (theoretically), you exchange gifts and just be happy for a month out of the year.

There is literally zero things wrong with that picture, if you ask me.

 

[Bvenged]

I genuinely enjoy giving gifts to family/friends, and I thoroughly enjoy the christmas spirit for the week between Xmas Eve and the day after New Years Day.

On the contrary, I absolutely hate the water-boarding effect of the christmas season prior to that week.

Seriously, we're inundated by the media's "festive spirit" from anywhere in November, up to the 24th December and beyond. It's bloody ridiculous. Start picking up the atmosphere/mood anywhere in the first 10 days of December, then build it up gradually, instead of building it up across 3 days of November, and maintaining a torrent of festivity until there's too much to bare. Any sooner than that and it becomes sickening - like and overplayed song, and then some... oh wait, that happens too in the weeks of November and December.

I swear I wake up in the mornings of December, not by rubbing sleep out of my eyes, but by wrestling free of christmas lights and baubles I don't remember owning.

 

[eternal-chaplain]

I have mixed feelings about this time of year, largely due to Christmas.
It doesn't anything to do with gifts or any of that. But in Wicca, we have celebrated Yule this time of the year long before this Christmas thing got started, and even though Babee Jeebus was born around 6 months before, Christians stole the day and made it theirs. So, it always just serves as a sour reminder of all the maltreatment Wiccans have been dealt at their hands. Everything from the witch burnings of centuries past to the 21st Century when former president Bush tried declassify Wicca as a religion. The eggnog is nice, though.

 

[Gabanuka]

This time of your you just gotta give in and let the joy and spirit consume you.

And remember: [youtube=ogetBqMgau0

 

[Headdrivehardscrew]

I have very negative and destructive feelings towards the media and consumerism bit of the season... so I mostly just ignore that part. I find it to make my life easier.

The thing itself - is about love, life and family. It doesn't matter how shitty you find your life to be, celebrating the being alive bit should be somewhat... important, methinks.

Bear in mind that the festivity predates Christianity, so, as such, I feel obliged to stick to the custom and spirit of it. Denouncing it or making fun of it is a mistake by any standards, methinks.

You only live once, and it's usually a pretty shitty and short ride.

 

[RedDeadFred]

I was going to put love it but then I saw the bottom answer. I am literally drunk off of eggnog mixed with Appleton's Spiced Rum right now.

 

[Z of the Na'vi]

Can't stand the cold, or my family, and I don't like the sense of a need to achieve equitation that comes from receiving gifts.

So basically, opinions.

Hm, very well.

Good luck with the next month or so, then.

Might as well make the best of things as opposed to being miserable, just saying.

 

[Sewa_Yunga]

I have mixed feelings about it. There are some really nice christmas faires around the city, one of them having a medieval theme. So that's what immediatly came to my mind when you asked what I liked about the season. [sub]I just reread your OP and realized you asked about what I don't like... I tend to look at the bright side of life [/sub]

What I really dislike during the season is the radio. I don't actively listen radio anyway since most of the music running there is crap. I mean, there are other things I don't like about christmas, like kitschy decorations and blatantly stupid ad campaigns, but the radio stations... Whew. Not only do they insert the same 5 songs into their playlist every half hour; no sir, they have to "adorn" every fucking song with a minute of jingling bells. You know, to invoke the spirit of the season. When I hear them, I feel my brain cells committing suicide one by one.

Spoiler: If I ever happen to meet the person who thought that up, this is what I'm gonna tell them:

If I ever happen to meet the person who thought that up, this is what I'm gonna tell them:

And the very night after that, I'm gonna send that person there.